


Dragon Season: One Hundred and One

by Akiko_Natsuko



Series: Dragon Season [9]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Apologies, Death, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friendship/Love, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Promises, Serious Injuries, Spells & Enchantments
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-01-18
Packaged: 2019-10-11 23:41:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17456507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akiko_Natsuko/pseuds/Akiko_Natsuko
Summary: One Hundred and One days. A hundred different promises made as Gajeel spends each day sat beside his mate, waiting, and praying for Levy to come back to him.





	1. Chapter 1

 

  Gajeel had thought that he had known what pain was and that he knew all there was to know about being hurt and hurting others. He had been wrong. Sitting in the guild infirmary, with one of her tiny, fragile hands cradled between his, he realised that he knew absolutely nothing about pain. Even the guilt still harboured over what he had done to her the first time they had met had never felt like this, and he was vaguely aware of the tears trickling down his cheeks as he clutched her hand as tightly as he dared. _Please. Please don’t do this to me…_ He wanted to plead with her, beg her to come back, to stay with him, but the words wouldn’t come, trapped somewhere in the hole that seemed to have opened up in his chest. _Levy, please…_

   He had always been aware of how small his mate was. Not weak, not in the slightest, he had learned that better than anyone, his draconic side rumbling with pride when he saw her standing firm in front of enemies that many would have fled from…but small. The perfect size for him to curl himself around when they were at home, whether they were in their bed or on the sofa. The perfect height for him to creep up behind her, wrapping his arms loosely around him and resting his head atop of hers as he listened to her faux angry protests. However, he had never seen her look as tiny and vulnerable as she did right now, lying unconscious in the infirmary bed and an unhappy growl rumbled through his chest. He wanted to protect her, he had to protect and yet it was already too late, because he hadn’t been there to protect her when she needed him the most…

   He hadn’t even seen what had hit her, too caught up in his own fight. He had known that she was okay apart from small cuts and bruises because his draconic side was fairly quiet beneath the usual concern he felt when they were on a job. Then it had all gone to hell. He had heard her scream, a noise unlike any he had ever heard from her before a split second before it had felt like his chest a split open, a feral snarl escaping as his draconic side surged to the forefront, overwhelming all rational thought. He had no recollection of the fight that had followed, all he knew was that when he had come back to himself, it was to find the enemy mages splayed around him and Lily frantically shouting at him to come back to himself, and Levy…

   She had been unconscious by then and had it not been for the thin trail of blood coming from her nose it would have looked like she was merely sleeping. Nothing they had done had got the faintest hint of a response from her, and there had been an emptiness in his bond with her that had terrified him/ She was still there, still with him, but only just…

   Even now they had no idea what she had been hit with, and it had been hours since he had managed to get them both back to the guild. Even Porlyusica hadn’t had an answer to give him, something that had increased his terror tenfold as he had never seen the healer look so lost. She had since retreated to try and find an answer, but he hadn’t needed her soft warning that she might not find anything, it had been written across her face, and Wendy’s when the younger Dragon-slayer had tried to pull him aside so that she could deal with his injuries. But he had just brushed her aside and reclaimed his seat beside his mate, reaching for her hand to reassure himself that she was still there. _Levy…_

   He could feel the sting of his injuries every time he moved, could smell the blood both his and his opponents that had stained his clothes, but he couldn’t bring himself to move or to let the others help him despite their frequent attempts to do just that. _I failed her, I don’t deserve their help…_ The thought of shifting from her side for even a second filled him with terror, a low growl rumbling through his chest, his draconic side trying to both comfort him and warn him that something was wrong with his mate and he blinked back sudden tears. _Levy…_ His hand was shaking as he reached up, tentatively brushing his fingers against her cheek and feeling another growl rumbling through his chest.

_It hurts. I need you to come back to me, please..._


	2. Chapter 2

 

    Gajeel had snarled when he was shaken awake the next morning. Torn between the fierce need to protect Levy, and shame that he had allowed himself to fall asleep at some point before, lashing out with one hand only to find the blow easily being stopped by a warm hand. And it took him a moment to realise that it was Natsu had roused him. There was no sign of the usual irritation or desire to fight in the olive eyes that met his, and he felt his draconic side settling somewhat. Natsu wasn’t a threat. In fact, he was probably the only person in the entire guild right now that understood what Gajeel was experiencing, and it was that knowledge that allowed the Iron Dragon-slayer to slowly turn his attention towards the bed.

“Levy…?”

“There’s been no change,” Natsu said softly, and Gajeel turned back to look at him with pained eyes for a moment. While he was relieved that she hadn’t taken a turn for the worse, he couldn’t hide his disappointment at the fact that she was still laid there as still and silent as she had been the day before, her cuts and bruises seeming to stand out even more vividly against her pale skin. _Levy…_ The distance in their bond, the feeling that she wasn’t really there still lingered and he turned back to his mate, stretching out a trembling hand towards her, stiffening slightly as the Fire mage continued in a gentle voice. “Gajeel, she’s holding her own. She’s still here.”

“I know that!” Gajeel snarled. _I know that. I know that…He_ did, he could see it with his own two eyes, could see her chest rising and falling steadily, and yet…

“Do you?” Natsu didn’t seem fazed in the slightest by his tone, and there was something in Natsu’s voice that made Gajeel turn towards him once more. “I always find myself forgetting that fact…” There was a wry smile and a shadow of remembered pain in the Fire mage’s eyes as he met Gajeel’s gaze. “Whenever I’ve come even remotely close to losing Gray, I could never really convince myself of that fact until he was awake. Until I could feel him completely through the bond.”

“I…”

“But you have to remember,” Natsu cut across him, sounding so serious and mature, and so unlike himself, that Gajeel found himself having to listen to his words. “You have to remember so that you can find a way to call her back to you.”

“Natsu…” It was so easy at times to forget that he wasn’t the only Dragon-slayer with a mate, or the only one having to deal with the influence of his draconic side. And he found himself overwhelmingly grateful for the fact that Natsu was there even if he couldn’t put that feeling into words as he slowly turned his attention back to Levy. _I have to find a way to call her back to me? But how…?_

“We took care of your wounds whilst you slept,” Natsu said softly as he rose to his feet, and Gajeel blinked as he glanced down at himself, struggling to hold back a growl as he realised that not only had he fallen asleep but he had let the others get that close to his mate without knowing it.

“I sat with her when they were treating you,” Natsu was quick to reassure him as he caught the soft rumble that Gajeel wasn’t completely able to restrain. “I’ll bring you up something to eat,” he added as he turned and headed for the door, glancing back and cutting off the half-formed protest before Gajeel could even get it out. “You won’t want it, but you have to eat for her.”

    Gajeel blinked at that, wanting to be angry at the other Dragon-slayer for using that against him, but he knew that Natsu was right and he bowed his head in defeat, before adding only slightly grudgingly.

“Thank you…”

****

   Natsu had been and gone again with food, and Gajeel had managed to choke down about half of it, his gaze never leaving the unconscious Solid-Script mage as his thoughts churned. He had a thousand reasons why he needed his mate to come back to him. To see her eyes opening and glistening with delight at the sight of a new book or the challenge of translating a new language, and to hear her laughing and chatting with Lucy, the bright smile that had ensnared him so long ago drawing him in. But he knew that Natsu was right and that he had to find a way to call her back to him, to give her a reason to fight.

   It was as he sat there nearly an hour later, one of her hands cradled in his and his other hand played gently with her hair, something that would usually have her scolding him for distracting her, before tackling him so that she could return the favour. As she had an obsession with his long hair that he had never fully understood, but that he had never once complained about after experiencing the sensation of her fingers combing through it with the utmost tenderness, that the thought of making a list of promises occurred to him. There was so much for them still to do, so much that he knew that she wanted to do that she hadn't yet dared to tell him that she wanted, and so much that he wanted. He didn’t know if that was what Natsu had been talking about, but he hoped that those promises…that future…would give her something to hold onto, and something to fight for.

“Levy…” He whispered, his voice catching on a lump in his throat as he studied her. _You always said that you believed in me, even back when I first joined and everything I had done to you still lay between us. Please let that still be true._ He had never understood how she could look at him with such trust, how she could touch him without fear, or how she could forgive him so easily. Or how from the very start she had believed in him in a way that no one else ever had, even before they became mates. But she had…fiercely defending that choice on the rare occasion that it had been challenged, and it was the thought of her flashing eyes and the determined set to her chin when she was truly angry about something that gave him the courage to find his voice once more. “There is so much I still have to tell you. So much that we have to do together, so until you wake up, I’m going to make a list of promises. Things to make our future out of, because I know that’s something you want. And I know that I’ve never said it before, but that future is something I’ve dreamed of since the day you became my mate.”

_He had always known, from the moment she had stood up against her own teammates and Laxus to defend him that she was his mate. To him, it was as unavoidable as day following night, and he had been fine with that. She was not what he had expected back when Metalicana had explained to him how Dragons and Dragon-slayers mated, but even before his draconic side had rumbled to life in his chest, screaming at him that Levy was his, he had known that she was his. That she was everything he needed and more. He had known that, but he had never expected her to accept that fact, or what being mated to a Dragon-slayer would entail with such ease._

_He had been stunned that day in the guild when she had boldly and without any thought to the fact that they had so far been keeping their budding relationship under wraps walked up to him, cutting off his possessive growls with a fierce kiss that he would never have thought she was capable of. Even then he hadn’t really dared to let himself believe it, and it had only been when she had leant forward. Her hands sneaking up to tangle in his hair and her breath warm against his ear as she said three words he had never thought he would hear from her, that he didn’t deserve to hear from her that he had actually realised that she was accepting him and his feelings._

_“I love you…”_

   It was something he had never told her enough. It had taken him months to summon up the courage to tell her the first time, and even now he could see the dazzling smile that he had been rewarded with that day.

_It had just been a quiet day between jobs, and they had decided to spend the day lazing around at home, Gajeel tinkering around with his piles of scrap that he had learned to keep in tidy heaps so as not earn her wrath and Levy sprawled on the sofa with her nose buried in a book. He wasn’t sure what had made him look up from what he was doing, but he had found himself glancing towards her, his breath catching in his throat as he stared at her. She had stolen one of his shirts, and it was so long on her that it was serving as a dress, hanging loosely off one shoulder and he swallowed as he watched her reaching up to tug it back up. Her eyes never shifting from her book and he wanted to laugh at the sight, and the fact that she could be oblivious to everything when she was caught up in a book._

_A mischievous smirk had crossed his lips at that thought, and quietly he’d risen to his feet and headed across to her, deliberately keeping his steps as quiet as possible. He had intended to surprise her, longing to hear the high squeal that usually met such attempts but just as he was reaching for her, she turned to look at him with narrowed eyes, and he had frozen in place. It was clear that she had caught on to what he was planning, and that she was trying to appear stern, but he could see the smile that was tugging at her lips and sudden warmth blossomed in his chest as he stared at her and he found himself moving forwards even as she opened her mouth to scold him._

_“I love you…” He hadn’t meant to say it, but the words had spilled out as he leant down to steal a kiss, and it was only when he had heard her startled gasp that it had dawned on him what he had said. He had finished the kiss before pulling back, his cheeks already turning red, and he had felt himself turning completely crimson when he had caught the dazzling smile on her lips. A smile that had instantly become his favourite and one that he had decided he wanted to see as often as possible._

   However, it wasn’t in his nature to be overly emotional with his words and sitting there now and staring into her pale face, his fingers trembling as he traced the bruises marring her skin, he realised that he hadn’t said the words nearly enough.

“Levy…” He whispered, leaning forward in his seat, struggling not to falter when there wasn’t even a flicker to show that she was aware of his presence. “I love you…” _So damn much, more than I ever thought I could love anyone let alone a little shrimp like you,_ he could just imagine her rolling her eyes at him if she could hear him say that much, and his heart ached when instead her face remained still. “I love you, and I’m sorry that I never told you that as often as I should have, and that’s my first promise. My first reason for you to hold on and come back to me. I promise, from now on I will tell you that every single day!” He swallowed thickly as he finished, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek before resting his head against hers.

_It’s a promise, so please come back to me. Please let me keep it..._


End file.
